


New-Dol

by pissjesus



Series: Gorillaz One-shots [2]
Category: Gorillaz
Genre: Family, Family Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Found Family, Gen, Phase One (Gorillaz), Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:00:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27307393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pissjesus/pseuds/pissjesus
Summary: Upon the unexpected arrival of a new guitarist-- who's much smaller than expected-- three lads who can barely take care of themselves have to figure out how to take care of a young Noodle.
Series: Gorillaz One-shots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1899880
Comments: 1
Kudos: 59





	New-Dol

“You don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, what’s it matter if she’s a kid? Did you hear her shred? That’s our guitarist!”

“You can’t keep a kid you got in the mail, no matter how good she plays guitar! There’s gotta be some child labor laws against it!”

Noodle can’t understand what these two men are arguing about, but they gave her ice cream, so she isn’t too worried about it. She hasn’t gotten to see much of her new home yet, but she could tell it was huge from how far they had to go from the front door to the kitchen. So many rooms and none of them seem to serve a clear purpose except for this one. The vibe of this place is strange, kind of dark, like the lights can’t quite reach every corner. But the kitchen is a kitchen, albeit a messy one. The chairs are hard, but she has to sit on a phone book anyway. 

While the two bicker back and forth, the third member with the blue hair and empty eyes sits across from her at the kitchen table, looking at her quizzically. At least, she thinks that’s how he’s looking. It’s hard to tell how much is going on in his head. She wishes she could ask him, but they’re still trying to cross the language barrier. She knows his name.  _ Two-Dee _ , he’d said, pointing to himself.  _ Two-Dee _ , she’d repeated, and they’d shared gap-toothed smiles.

“Even if there weren’t any legal matters in the way, we don’t have the means to take care of a kid! I know your standard of living is lower than most peoples’ but even  _ you _ have to see this is no place for a little girl. This is a bachelor pad at best.”

“So we’ll clean the place up a bit! We feed her, change her newspaper every day--”

“Muds, I can’t tell if you’re kidding or not, and I don’t like it!”

“Muds,” Noodle repeats, pointing her spoon at the greenish man with the strange-shaped nose.

“That’s what Russel calls him, but most of the time he’s Murdoc,” 2D says.

“Mur-doc,” Noodle says, nodding.

“We can’t just send her back, Russ, she must be here for a reason! Think about it, we’d  _ just _ put an ad in the paper for a new guitarist, and one shows up on our doorstep! If I was a spiritual man, I’d call it a miracle, but I’m not, so I’d say we hit the jackpot!”

“I know this might be a great opportunity for  _ you _ , but what about her? She’s not a pet. We can barely take care of ourselves.”

“We can’t screw her up  _ that _ bad between the three of us.”

“ _ I’m _ gonna be doing all the work, Muds, I can see it now. I'm not a guardian or a caregiver. I'm 23. But I don’t know which would be worse. After all, you’ve done such a  _ fine _ job taking care of 2D.”

2D perks up at the sound of his name. Murdoc leans to look at him past Russel’s broad frame.

“2D, don’t you think she’d be a smashing guitarist?”

“Oi, she’s really good,” 2D says.

“You leave him out of this!” Russel says, stepping to the side to block 2D’s view of Murdoc, and the two return to bickering.

Noodle tugs 2D’s shirt sleeve. When he turns back to her, she curls her hand and mimes drinking something. 

“Oi Russel, I fink she’d loik somefink to drink,” 2D says. He turns back to Noodle. “What would you loik, Miss Lady? Would you loik chocolate milk? Technically it’s mine, but I’ll share it wif you if you’d loik some.” He takes her hand and leads her to the fridge. He points to the chocolate milk, and she nods gleefully. He pours her a glass almost to the brim and hands it to her.

“Normally I don’t loik to share it, but you can have it anytime you want. Do you loik video games?” 2D mimes holding a controller, twiddling the buttons, and tilting it back and forth.

Noodle lowers the glass from her chocolate-coated mouth. “Video game!” She parrots. “ _ Hai _ !”

“Yeah! I’m not very good at ‘em, but it’d be nice to have someone to play with when Russel’s busy. And I always lose to him. He’s really good. You want me to show you the games we got?”

Noodle purses her lips as she tries to decipher the words in her head. She understands English well enough to pick up sentences here and there, well enough to know her arrival has caused a conundrum, but the way 2D says his words is funny. The way he says her name has a strange delay in the middle, the vowels plunking like a heavy box:  _ New-dol _ . He must realize she’s thinking hard, because he once again mimes the controller.

“Play?” He says. “Yeah?”

“ _ Hai _ ! Yeah!” Noodle shrieks.

“Wait, ‘D,” Russel says, but Murdoc stops him with a hand on his shoulder.

“You go show her those games, 2D. Keep the rugrat entertained.”

Noodle takes 2D’s hand and practically drags him to the stairs, sloshing chocolate milk to the floor in her wake.

When he’s sure they’re out of earshot, Russel furrows his brows at Murdoc. “I don’t want her to be uprooted more than she probably has been,” he says. “This is a bigger deal than just replacing a guitarist.”

“She’s gonna be the ticket that takes our band to the top, I know it.”

“I’m not talking about the band, you shithead! I’m talking about a kid! You don’t know what you’re getting into, do you?”

Murdoc nudges the Fed-Ex crate on the kitchen floor with his boot, rustling the packing peanuts inside. “Russ, I’m gonna give you a rare look inside the dark, bitter hole where my soul should be for the sake of my argument. Me and this kid both started off on someone’s doorstep. For me, it was my lovely, bastard father. Sure, he was a guide book on what  _ not _ to do, but that’s a guidebook nonetheless.”

“I know what it’s like to bounce around from place to place and pack my things as soon as I feel like I just started getting settled. I can’t put her through that,” Russel says.

“Then don’t. Let her stay. We’re not  _ complete _ fuck-ups. I’ve had to look after myself my whole life, and you’re the most responsible person I know, as much as it pains me to say something so  _ ssssssentimental _ . But I can’t let this band fail like everything else I’ve done. I’ll do anything to see it succeed, even if that means babysitting.” He jabs a finger into Russel’s chest. “And I know you’re already soft for the little bugger. You don’t want her to leave either.”

Russel sighs and pushes Murdoc’s finger away. “You can’t lose your temper with her. The first time you so much as raise your voice at her, I’ll put you eight feet in the ground in the cemetery outside.”

“It’s six feet, not eight.”

“Well you’re short, so it’ll seem like eight if we take your height into account.”

“Aargh!” Murdoc clenches his fists. “You f-”

“ _ Mur-doc! _ ” Noodle’s voice calls from the stairs. He turns to her, wide-eyed as if he’d been caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to. She waves her empty glass at him. “Chocolate milk!”

Russel claps a hand to Murdoc’s back. “You heard her, little man, get the kid her chocolate milk.”

“It’s still my band!” Murdoc growls, retrieving the milk from the fridge. “I’m the head honcho of this bloody house, and no one tells me what to do!”

**Author's Note:**

> -Happy birthday Noodle!!  
> -And Happy Halloween Girls and Gays!  
> -Thank you for all the wonderful feedback on my main fic, especially the regular readers *blows you a kiss*  
> -As always, here's my original comic, Plan Z https://sammijlewis66.wixsite.com/planz. I'll be posting a new PZ chapter by the end of November, AND hosting a "draw this in your style"/giveaway so if that sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, follow me on instagram/tumblr @ Poltergeistsoup


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